Cultivating a shared responsibility to sustain a healthy watershed now and into the future

The Lower Cedar River Watershed is in eastern Iowa encompassing seven counties and twenty-five cities and is generally thought to include the most biologically diverse landscape in Iowa. The Lower Cedar River and its tributaries spans 703,060 acres, beginning in central Linn County and eventually joining with the Iowa River in northern Louisa County.

Resource concerns in the watershed include flooding, high bacteria levels, excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), and erosion. In 2017, concerned stakeholders came together to form a Watershed Management Authority (WMA), pursuant to Iowa Code Chapter 466B.22. The Lower Cedar Watershed Management Authority was officially formed as a separate legal entity in January 2018. A watershed planning process is underway that will be used to improve the watershed and address the environmental concerns.

"The publication of this website has been funded in part by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Federal Nonpoint Source Management Program (Section 319 of the Clean Water Act)."